Villa looking to snap up Crystal Palace winger

Suddenly, the Twitters are exploding with the rumor that Aston Villa are doing a deal "behind the scenes" to secure Jason Puncheon from Crystal Palace.

Now obviously "behind the scenes" means it's not going to be in the news, but honestly, where did this rumor start? It could well be Twitter nonsense, with fans looking to get excited about something on deadline day.

This all started after the news broke that Palace are about to break their record transfer fee by bringing in James McArthur from Wigan. Now, McArthur and Puncheon don't play the same position, but that's never stopped a good rumor from circulating, has it?

It helps, too, that there's no love lost between Neil Warnock and Puncheon. Warnock managed the player back in 2011, when he was at Queens Park Rangers. Last year, Warnock announced, after Puncheon missed a penalty against Tottenham, that there was no way he would've chosen him to take the spot-kick. Puncheon retaliated, criticizing his former manager in tweets that were later deleted.

Now, of course, Warnock has come to Palace. But the manager let Puncheon know the past was in the past, and it seemed as though he was going to keep him on, particularly after he praised the attacker for his fantastic goal against Newcastle at the weekend. Puncheon, for his part, spoke about putting the club above individuals.

So is this just nonsense? Or do you think there's really a behind the scenes deal being worked out? Puncheon signed permanently with Palace just last January, a deal tying him to the club until June 2018, so it's likely he'd be rather expensive. Would he be worth it?